She continued wiping his back, her hands moving carefully down his shoulders when he suddenly pulled her towards him, leaving her nearly pressed against him.
“I have water in my name too,” he said suddenly.
“Hmm? What?”
She said that everyone else had a courtesy name, but she had never known his.
“Qiushui,” Xuan said softly, seeming to find it inelegant. Qiushui… this name was indeed too obvious, seeming to lack imposing manner and appearing somewhat girlish.
“When I was born, the Emperor was on a pleasure boat with his concubines. One of the concubines casually composed a line of poetry: ‘Xuan looks afar, autumn water like blue,’ and the Emperor casually bestowed this courtesy name upon me. That concubine didn’t say ‘window looks afar,’ otherwise it would have been awful,” Xuan’s tone was very casual, with a hint of self-deprecation.
With her hand on his shoulder, hearing him say this, she felt a pang of sadness in her heart.
Her mother often said that before she and her brother were born, their father would always flip through books and examine scrolls in his study, researching many characters, and then discuss them with their mother, only deciding on their courtesy names when they reached their full month of age. Although a courtesy name might not represent anything, and although she knew Xuan was not favored, she hadn’t expected it to be like this from childhood.
That high and mighty Emperor hadn’t paid much attention to him from birth, and was even too lazy to spend even a little effort to give him a courtesy name.
Unconsciously, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing her face against Xuan’s: “Qiushui is very nice, my name is Chenbi, without water, the bi jade would have nowhere to sink.”
“Reasonable, without water nourishing the bi jade, how could it be so lustrous?” Xuan pinched her face. “Don’t think that just because you praise me a couple of times you don’t have to scrub my back. Quickly add some hot water, the water is getting cold.”
Knowing his temperament, she didn’t argue, carefully wiping his body clean, washing his hair, and then bringing newly made clothes, carefully serving him to put them on.
“It seems the size is still suitable.” She felt quite satisfied.
